Oil prices posted their biggest one-day drop in nearly two years Tuesday as a U.S.-led wave of crude has crashed into weak global demand, threatening the stability of some countries and providing an economic lifeline to others.

Bank of America Corp. and BNP Paribas SA predict prices will hold above $80 a barrel. Commerzbank AG also sees that level as a possible low for Brent crude. They’re in part counting on OPEC cutting output -- some say as soon as next month -- to compensate for recent declines in demand.

This year's fall in energy prices is hastening the decline of big oil, as the seven Western majors sell-off assets, cut investment, return money to shareholders and shrink in size, leaving ever more output to small producers and state firms.

West Texas Intermediate extended its slump into a bear market amid speculation that rising global oil supplies will be more than enough to meet slowing demand. London’s Brent traded at the lowest price since December 2010.

EIA projects average U.S. household expenditures for natural gas, heating oil, electricity, and propane will decrease this winter heating season (October 1 through March 31) compared with last winter, which was 11% colder than the previous 10-year average nationally.

Brent crude hit a 28-month low on Thursday while benchmark US oil dropped below the $90 a barrel mark for the first time since April 2013, pointing to significant stocks on both sides of the Atlantic.

The US is overtaking Saudi Arabia to become the world’s largest producer of liquid petroleum, in a sign of how its booming oil production has reshaped the energy sector.

There was a time when headlines about jets bombing Middle Eastern refineries would have sent oil prices soaring.

West Texas Intermediate crude fell from the highest price in seven days as concern eased over the risk of a supply disruption in the Middle East. Brent declined in London.

Iran’s oil minister called on Opec nations to work together to prevent a further slide in crude prices,